Syrian Carnage at Turkey’s Doorstep Stirs Security Concerns

The death toll from yesterday’s explosion at the Cilvegozu border crossing rose to 14, state-run TRT television said today, and more than two dozen were injured. Photographer: Cem Genco/AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey is investigating a car-bomb
attack near its border with Syria that left 14 people dead and
heightened fears that the Syrian civil war may spill over into
its neighbor.

The death toll from yesterday’s explosion at the Cilvegozu
border crossing rose to 14, state-run TRT television said today,
and more than two dozen were injured. Turkey’s Interior Minister
Muammer Guler called the blast an “act of terror.” The rebels
seized the Syrian border post across from Cilvegozu in July.

Turkey is “vigilantly protecting its border with Syria,”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his party’s lawmakers
in parliament today. “Turkey will take the necessary steps”
when investigations reveal more about the incident, he said.

The target of the attack was the motorcade of Syrian
National Council leader George Sabra, Al Arabiya television
said. Sabra was about to cross the border through Cilvegozu and
escaped the attack when his motorcade stopped for a break,
Today’s Zaman newspaper said, citing unidentified members of
Syrian opposition groups.

Turkey has sided with the Syrian rebels fighting to oust
President Bashar al-Assad, who has accused Turkey of providing
them with military support. NATO missile-defense batteries have
been deployed at Turkey’s request to reinforce security at its
Syrian border.

Three suspects, thought to be Syrians, have been
identified, Guler said. Authorities will deploy a mobile X-ray
machine at the gate to boost security after the attack, the
state-run Anatolia agency said, citing Customs and Trade
Minister Hayati Yazici.

‘Question Marks’

Hursit Gunes, an opposition lawmaker, complained on Twitter
that a court classified video footage of the explosion after his
party petitioned to watch it.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told a
televised news conference that there were many “question
marks” about the attack. “A vehicle with Syrian license plates
with three people in it arrived from Syria and parked,” he
said. “They left 20 minutes before the explosion.”

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said the vehicle parked
some 20 meters (yards) away from the Turkish customs office and
a Turkish army border unit.

‘Proxy War’

“There is a proxy war between Turkey and Syria,” said
Nihat Ali Ozcan, a security analyst at the Economic Policy
Research Foundation in Ankara. “This attack is a harbinger of
more violence near or even inside Turkey as long as Assad
remains in power.”

Assad’s agents, Syrian rebels, Kurdish militants and
militants from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front are active just
across the border, Ozcan said.

The attack coincided with a renewed offer by Syrian
opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib, who said that he’s willing to
meet Assad’s government in rebel-held areas in northern Syria.
Syria’s government ignored his earlier offer, which set a
condition that prisoners be released.